Who and how deduced almost $ 20 billion from Russia. Joint project of Novaya Gazeta and the International Organization of Journalists (OCCRP)

We called this “Landromat” - the largest operation to launder criminal income in the history of the CIS, recorded by law enforcement agencies of Moldova, Russia and the Baltic countries.

“Landromat” has been operating over the past four years and allowed scammers who used the same scheme to wash money on an industrial scale - such that exceed the GDP of many countries of the world. This scheme was attended by: dozens of Russian banks, as well as banks of Moldova and Latvia; Moldavian judges and bailiffs; poor nominal directors from Ukrainian villages; And the same nominal managers from the tiny islands of the Caribbean. These operations were carried out on the territory of several countries, but the only victim can be considered Russia: the money withdrawn to the shadow financial sector, apparently, had Russian origin-taxes were not paid from them, and most of them are unlikely to return back. In just a few years, about $ 20 billion was withdrawn from our country - about the same amount of the Russian government plans to spend on the development of Crimea today.

We started this investigation about a year ago, when Moldavian colleagues from OCCRP drew attention to unusual judicial orders accepted by judges from different regions of Moldova. These orders obliged Russian firms to pay huge amounts (reaching $ 800 million) offshore companies. Even a fluent study of these orders left no doubt-we are talking about some kind of fraud: Russian companies had signs of one-day and were registered for citizens of Moldova and Ukraine from small remote villages; Offshore companies had no assets, and the turnover was equal to zero, that is, officially they did not conduct any economic activity. And despite all this, Moldavian judges stamped court orders for hundreds of millions of dollars in favor of the plaintiffs, and with the full consent of the defendants.

At that time, we did not understand the true meaning of these orders and doubted that some money was paid on their basis in reality. However, the time passed, the guesses remained guesses, and the orders continued to stamped, bringing the total, noticed, cash volume to several billion dollars.

And a few months ago a solution appeared: the representative of the Higher Judicial Chamber of Moldova announced that the orders we discovered were made illegally and served as a cover for a large -scale laundering of money withdrawn from Russia. On this occasion, a criminal case was opened in Moldova, and it took us some time to gain access to its materials. And only when we saw the documents, the whole meaning of these operations and their scale became obvious.

How Landromat worked

We investigated about 10 court cases - all of them are essentially identical, only the names of foreign and Russian companies, the names of Moldovan residents, as well as the amount of claims, differ. The scheme worked as follows.

Two foreign companies (usually from the UK) allegedly entered into a loan agreement for hundreds of millions of dollars. At the same time, these companies had no assets and, judging by the documents, did not conduct any real activity.

The guarantors under these fictitious agreements were Russian firms and residents of Moldova, as a rule, from distant villages. Why were Moldavian poor people needed? Everything is simple - they allowed scammers to use the jurisdiction of Moldova.

When it was time to pay for fictitious debts on paper, the British company appealed to the Moldavian court with a lawsuit against its debtor, Russian one -day and citizen of Moldova. The defendants fully recognized the claims for $ 500-800 million.

Moldavian judges made court orders for debt collection. These orders were transferred to the bailiffs. The bailiffs opened accounts in the bank from Chisinau - Moldindconbank. The same bank opened the Corgic account of Russian banks participating in the withdrawal of funds.

Based on court orders, Russian firms (“Business guarantees”) transferred billions of rubles to Moldindconbank to bailiff accounts. The money was not delayed for a long time in the bailiff accounts: on the same day or the next they were converted into foreign currencies and were credited to the accounts of foreign companies in the Latvian Trasta Komercbanka.

In total, 19 banks and about a hundred firms from Russia, as well as more than 20 Moldavian judges, participated in this scheme. For three years, they accepted more than 50 court orders that legalized payments from Russia for $ 18.5 billion. All money passed through Moldova (GDP of this republic in 2013 was less than $ 8.5 billion).

The Higher Council of the magistracy (oversees the activities of Moldovan judges) admitted that decisions were made illegally, on the basis of dubious and incomplete copies of documents.

We talked with one of the judges - Valery Gyshke, who issued 5 orders for almost $ 2.1 billion. On December 18, 2012, Gyshke (lawyer today) issued his last order to recover $ 500 million from Russian firms in favor of a foreign company, and three days later he quit the judicial system.

“My decisions did not affect the interests of the state or the Moldavian financial system,” says Gyshake, whom we met in the parking lot near the building of the Moldova Government. - Not a single financial organization or Bank of Moldova was involved in lawsuits. Only a citizen of Moldova was a party in these processes, and all companies were foreign.

When I judged, I followed the law. Each time, a person from Chisinau gave me sets of documents, from which it followed that the parties had no objections. These documents were certified in the most proper way. Not a single decision was canceled, and I consider them correct. Money in all cases came from Russia, and then went to foreign countries. If someone washed this money and used us (judges), then the law enforcement agencies of Moldova must prove this. I have no idea who could stand behind this, and did not know that other Moldavian judges made the same decisions. ”

We also tried to contact the bailiff Svetlana Mokan: she executed court orders, and almost $ 17 billion washed through her account washed through the “landromat”. Mokan refused to meet and answer our questions. She only reported on the phone: “I have no right to share information with you. I will not tell you anything. "

Vasily Sharko, the head of the service for the laundering of Moldova’s money, told us that the investigation of this case began in December last year. “Many judges and bailiffs can go to jail,” Sharko assured us. “Decisions were made by judges only on the basis of copies of documents. Now we are investigating three criminal cases on this subject, two more will soon be instituted. Two criminal cases were also opened in Latvia and Estonia. Now one of the bailiffs is under the recognizance not to leave, the second was arrested in March, ”says Sharko.

The participants in the banking market interviewed by us explained that no matter how difficult and large -scale this scheme seemed, in fact, it is just an improved type of “envelope” - this is how the converting of money from one currency to another is called on the slaughter of bankers.

“There are two main illegal banking services -“ cashing ”and“ conversion ”. In the first case, the client makes electronic payments to the “cashier”, and in return receives cash in Russia, minus the commission. In the second - the client can bring cash with cash or make electronic payments in rubles, and in return receives funds in foreign currency in a foreign bank, ”explains Sergey Lesnichy, director of the financial investigation center at the Government of the Russian Federation, a former officer of the banking department of the FSB department.

In theory, everything is simple. Then why did such difficulties need - crazy loans, poor guarantors, courts, bailiffs?

The scheme was always considered standard when the money was withdrawn from Russia abroad for the supply of non -existent goods. But the schemes of fictitious imports had one significant drawback: if desired, they were easily found when it turned out that the goods did not physically cross the border, several “cashes” from Moscow explained to us.

And at some point, someone in the market of shadow financial services, apparently, came up with the idea: there is no more reliable and legal cover to withdraw money abroad than the court decision to recover debt. As several bankers explained to us, the choice of Moldova as a transit territory for cash flows is also not accidental. First of all, because good partnerships have long been established between the bankers of Moldova and Russia in terms of the provision of illegal financial services - through Moldavian banks, for example, a lot of funds stolen from the budget of Russia under the guise of tax reimbursement were laundered. And besides, in Moldova, due to the standard of living, corruption services are cheaper. As one of the “cashing” Moscow joked, working through Moldavian banks: “Moldavian judge is cheaper than a Russian customs officer.”

A relative of the president

19 Russian banks worked through the Landromat. The leader in the volume of dubious operations, according to Moldovan law enforcement agencies, was the Russian Land Bank (RZB). The materials of the criminal case states that from 2012 to 2014 the volume of dubious operations between the RZB and Moldindconbank amounted to 152.5 billion rubles (about $ 4.5 billion). Judging by the schemes from the criminal case, the money came from several banks of Russia in the RZB (in the slang of “cashes, the RZB was a“ collection ”), and then transferred to Moldindconbank. Further, the money was converted into foreign currencies and went to the accounts of offshore companies in the Latvian Trasta KomredaCbanka.

Until 2011, the RZB belonged to Elena Baturina, the wife of the former mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov. In 2012, new shareholders came to the bank, and the board of directors was headed by Alexander Grigoryev (he also acquired a 16.35% bank through the Cyprus company Boaden LTD). And immediately after the change of shareholders, the RZB opened correspondent accounts in Moldindconbank (before that, the RZB, judging by the financial statements, had no correspondent relations with Moldovan banks). After the opening of the Countries, a massive withdrawal of funds in Moldova began.

Alexander Grigoryev is from St. Petersburg. In the banking world, he is a relatively new person - at least before the RZB, no banks associated with him were known. Prior to this, Grigoryev was known as the main shareholder of the Su-888 construction company from Yakutsk, which is involved in several large state projects. Several acquaintances of Grigoryev told us that he was somehow allegedly connected with the security authorities and even worked in the FSB. However, the banker himself in a telephone conversation with the New Gazeta denied this, in the FSB we were also informed that a person with that name did not serve them.

“I came to the banking business a few years ago,” explains Alexander Grigoryev. -The Su-888 construction company, whose shareholder I am, often participated in various state tenders, for which we had to contact banks for guarantees. In addition, we are actively lending. At some point, when Elena Baturina began to sell her assets, we received an offer to buy a share in the RZB. We thought that the bank could successfully combine with the construction business, and agreed to buy a minority package. ”

Grigoryev says he heard about operations with Moldindconbank, but does not know the details. “All decisions related to operating activities were made by executive bodies. The board of directors approved only some major transactions or made strategic decisions. It is difficult for me to judge why some people in Russia associate operations with Moldavian banks with my name. Each person has enemies, and you won’t be a sweet to everyone, ”says the banker.

In general, according to Grigoriev, a general agreement was signed between the RZB and Moldindconbank, within the framework of which interbank currency transactions were made. “We tried to earn money, and no one, including supervisory authorities, did not raise questions at that time,” Grigoryev concludes.

In May 2013, Grigoryev left the RZB-as he says, due to disagreements with other owners of the bank regarding its further development.

The Board of Directors of the RZB also included Igor Putin, a cousin of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Before the RZB, Igor Putin already had experience in the banking sector-for example, he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Master Bank, from which a license was withdrawn for laundering of criminal proceeds.

Putin and Grigoryeva seemed to connect a long -standing partnership. Putin was a member of the Councils of the Directors of the Su-888 construction company, as well as the Podolsky Promsberbank-in both structures Grigoryev was a shareholder.

In early 2014, Igor Putin left all the posts in banks and companies in Grigoryev to head the regional support and development fund.

All our letters with a request for a commentary to Putin remained unanswered. We only managed to contact his son - Roman Putin, who not so long ago founded the consulting company Putinconsulting. Roman informed us that his father no longer commented on his work in Grigoryev’s structures; All that he wanted to tell society on this occasion is set out in his letter published in Forbes magazine.

In this letter, Igor Putin wrote that his “personal experience of recent years proved the validity of the thesis about the need for radical recovery of the Russian banking system, its purification from dysfunctional banks led by people with a dubious reputation.” In the situation with the RZB, as Putin wrote, “competent sources warned me in advance about the real state of affairs, confirming my fears. Realizing that I was not able to change financial policy, I decided to leave the Board of Directors of the Bank. ”

“I cannot judge whom Igor Putin had in mind in his letter,” says Alexander Grigoryev. - As for our relations, we still sometimes call up. But we have never been friends - rather, partners. ”

In March 2014, the Bank of Russia withdrew the license from the RZB, including for violation of the law on countering the legalization of criminal proceeds. True, according to the Central Bank, the volume of dubious operations in the RZB amounted to 15 billion rubles in 2013, and in the documents of Moldovan law enforcement officers we are talking about numbers an order of magnitude higher. The Central Bank refused to comment on these discrepancies and, as a whole, the situation with Moldindconbank "until the final conclusion about the legality and economic validity of transactions."

After Alexander Grigoryev left the RZB, he began negotiations on the purchase of the Western Bank, which previously belonged to the famous banker Dmitry Leus.

“Western” repeated the fate of the RZB in some ways: after the change of owners, the Corgic account was opened in Moldindconbank, and, judging by the documents from the Moldavian criminal case, dubious transactions began. In April 2014, the Central Bank withdrew the license from the Western for numerous violations.

“As for the West,” explains Grigoryev, “there was a different situation. At the time of my purchase, the funds on the bank accounts of the bank existed in minimal volumes, and the so -called "assets" were doubtful. " In addition, according to Grigoryev, the Central Bank was in a restriction on attracting deposits from individuals. “That is, the bank almost did not have external sources of financing. I had to somehow develop only due to the fact that they themselves earned. In such a difficult situation, I realized that the bank’s prospects are not the best, and therefore decided to go out, ”concludes Grigoryev.

Famous people also worked in the "West" with Grigoryev. For example, for some time, the Board of Directors of the Bank was headed by Ilya Lomakin-Rumyantsev, the former head of the expert department of the President of Russia. Lomakin-Rumyantsev refused to answer our questions.

Another bank, which actively withdrawn funds through Moldindconbank, is called the Baltic Bank from St. Petersburg in the documents of Moldavian law enforcement officers. The documents say that from the Baltic in Moldindconbank over the past few years, 76.9 billion rubles have been transferred.

“Baltic” is an operating bank, included in the second hundred credit organizations of Russia in terms of assets. Bank's main shareholder Oleg Vlasov -
A well -known person in the banking world.

We sent a request to the Baltic with an indication of Russian firms that are suspected of Moldovan law enforcement officers in dubious transactions. The chairman of the Bank of the Bank Oksana Chernyak informed us that among the bank customers there are a company with such names, but to accurately say that these are the companies, it is impossible without additional identification data (for some reason, these data are not indicated in the materials of the Moldovan bodies). In addition, according to Chernyak, these companies did not make payments to non -residents. Chernyak also emphasized that Baltika Bank or its clients did not conduct operations with Moldavian bailiffs.

The Central Bank is aware of the withdrawal scheme of funds through Moldindconbank, several sources at the Bank of Russia told us. Now the Central Bank is conducting an internal investigation, also the Central Bank interacts with the law enforcement agencies of Russia and Moldova. According to our sources in the Central Bank, this scheme is far from the only, although quite large -scale, but excessive attention is focused on it. It is possible that competitors specially “merge” it, because the market for illegal financial services has long been divided, and its leaders are well known to everyone. In addition, special attention of special services has been focused on this business, therefore, as some “cashes” we have responded, active investigations around the Moldavian scheme may be associated with the next trial of the shadow financial services market.

Как бы то ни было, важно другое: если только по этой схеме из России было незаконно выведено 20 млрд долларов — и всем известно, что эта схема далеко не единственная, — то сколько же в целом из страны утекает денег через такие «обнальные» площадки и сколько же «крымов» можно было на эти деньги восстановить?

Роман АНИН

The project participated in the project:

• Михай Мунтяну, OCCRP

• Виктор Илие, Rise Project (Румыния)

• Юрий Сандута, Rise Project (Молдова)

• Ион Пряшка, Rise Project (Молдова)

• Арта Гига, Re:Baltica (Латвия)

• Миранда Патручич, OCCRP

• Владимир Костич, CINS (Сербия)

Comments

Откуда эти деньги?

Василий Шарко, глава службы по борьбе с отмыванием денег Молдовы , предположил, что одним из источников происхождения денег, отмытых через «ландромат», могли быть олимпийские проекты в Сочи. Один источник в ЦБ подтвердил нам эту версию: по его словам, столь сильное увеличение объемов сомнительных финансовых операций могло быть связано с активной стадией завершения строительства объектов в Сочи.

При этом пока нельзя говорить о наличии каких-то хищений, в этот период значительно выросли обороты компаний, участвовавших в стройке, — скорее всего, значительная часть средств могла выводиться в теневой финансовый сектор для наличной оплаты поставщикам, выдачи заработной платы, ухода от налогов.

Руслан Мильченко, директор ФИЦ «Аналитика и Безопасность», согласен с тем, что точно определить источник происхождения всех этих денег — почти непосильная задача. «Представьте, что у вас есть 100 наличных долларов, — объясняет Мильченко. — Вы приходите к «обнальщику» и хотите, чтобы эти деньги появились где-то на счету в Гонконге. Если у вас там нет счета или компании, вам ее тут же продадут — «обнальщики» покупают их онлайн у фирм, специализирующихся на регистрации юрлиц. Вы отдаете 100 долларов и через несколько дней получаете на зарубежном счете 96 или 97 долларов, в зависимости от комиссии «обнальщика».

Как эти деньги туда дошли, вы даже не будете знать — это все работа банкиров. У «обнальщиков» десятки компаний в самых разных банках, поэтому с помощью одного ноутбука и программы «банк-клиент» они будут переводить ваши деньги из банка в банк, со счета одной компании — на счет другой. И в каждом из банков они будут делиться комиссией за возможность работать. В итоге с ваших 100 долларов «обнальщик», к которому вы пришли, заработает 1,5–2%. Это как водопад, который формируют сотни маленьких ручейков. У того, кто сидит на таком ручейке, годовые обороты могут составлять десятки, ну максимум сотни миллионов рублей. А вот те, кто контролирует весь поток, работают с сотнями миллиардов. Таких людей в банковском мире немного. Они хорошо известны, но проблема в том, что их услугами пользуются и чиновники, и специальные службы, поэтому их безопасность и надежность бизнеса хорошо обеспечена».